Wisteria - Wisteria sinensis
Wisteria occurs throughout North Carolina and is listed as a worst weed by The Nature Conservancy's Sandhills office.
The Chinese variety of wisteria is the most frequently seen in North Carolina. When this vine escapes into forests, it climbs trees, intercepts sunlight, and kills or represses host trees. Hundreds of miles of wisteria vines are destroying trees at Raleigh's Umstead State Park. In fact, this deadly vine may be as destructive as kudzu.
Wisteria is usually observed as a vine, but sometimes as a shrub. Compound leaves have 7 to 19 leaflets in pairs. Blooming in April to May, the fragrant, usually violet, 0.5- to 1-inch flowers occur in large hanging clusters. Chinese wisteria produces fuzzy seedpods 4 to 6 inches long. A native wisteria blooms in June to August and produces smooth seedpods 2 to 4 inches long.
Photograph credit Susan Ross, NPS